Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 23, 2025
Databases to Efficiently Manage Medium Sized, Low Velocity, Multidimensional Data in Tissue Engineering
Published on: November 22, 2019
Diverse Mentoring Connections Across Institutional Boundaries in the Biomedical Sciences: Innovative Graph Database
Toufeeq Ahmed Syed1, Erika L Thompson2, Zainab Latif3
1University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, United States.
Background:
With an overarching goal of increasing diversity and inclusion in biomedical sciences, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) developed a web-based national mentoring platform (MyNRMN) that seeks to connect mentors and mentees to support the persistence of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical sciences. As of May 15, 2024, the MyNRMN platform, which provides mentoring, networking, and professional development tools, has facilitated more than 12,100 unique mentoring connections between faculty, students, and researchers in the biomedical domain.
Objective:
This study aimed to examine the large-scale mentoring connections facilitated by our web-based platform between students (mentees) and faculty (mentors) across institutional and geographic boundaries. Using an innovative graph database, we analyzed diverse mentoring connections between mentors and mentees across demographic characteristics in the biomedical sciences.
Methods:
Through the MyNRMN platform, we observed profile data and analyzed mentoring connections made between students and faculty across institutional boundaries by race, ethnicity, gender, institution type, and educational attainment between July 1, 2016, and May 31, 2021.
Results:
In total, there were 15,024 connections with 2222 mentees and 1652 mentors across 1625 institutions contributing data. Female mentees participated in the highest number of connections (3996/6108, 65%), whereas female mentors participated in 58% (5206/8916) of the connections. Black mentees made up 38% (2297/6108) of the connections, whereas White mentors participated in 56% (5036/8916) of the connections. Mentees were predominately from institutions classified as Research 1 (R1; doctoral universities-very high research activity) and historically Black colleges and universities (556/2222, 25% and 307/2222, 14%, respectively), whereas 31% (504/1652) of mentors were from R1 institutions.
Conclusions:
To date, the utility of mentoring connections across institutions throughout the United States and how mentors and mentees are connected is unknown. This study examined these connections and the diversity of these connections using an extensive web-based mentoring network.
Related Concept Videos
02:26Protein Networks
These interactions can be represented through maps depicting protein-protein interaction networks, represented as nodes and edges. Nodes are circles that are representative of a protein,...
02:12Relationship Formation